The Intentional Life

This year Hannah gets to share her birthday with my favorite holiday. Hannah actually celebrated her birthday 3 different times before this actual day that i don't really think she realized today was the actual day. However, i didn't want the day to go by with acknowledging the celebration of her birth. Hannah is boundless energy - she is constantly hopping. She is affectionate - she tells us many times a day "i love my mommy/daddy/Owen/Mads" And although she can drive us mad with her whining (we're still working on that) she makes us smile and laugh many times a day. Hannah, we love you and are so glad you are a part of our family! And to not overlook the whole reason we are able to celebrate - Thank you Jesus that you were willing to come to this earth, die on the cross, and rise from the dead to conquer sin and hell and death so that we can celebrate birthdays and look forward to heaven someday!

Well, we have become content with our crazy life as it is: raising three children under the age of 4, packing every few days to go live on campus at Gateway, working with delinquent teens (sometime as much as 7 at a time), getting Paul through college to get his Master's, doing our best to glorify God in our day to day lives. Ah, but I have found that although God calls us to contentment, once we find that place, He often calls us beyond it to stretch us some more. And so, Paul and I are taking on the challenge of fulltime houseparenting at Gateway. How does that differ from what we are doing now? Well, right now we live in a little house a few miles off campus and support the fulltime houseparents (Jarod and Molly Steffen) by running the house while they take their 9 days a month off, running doctor appointments, helping with treatment plan decisions, keeping the food room stocked, doing general maintenance around Cypress House and on campus, and completing other various thing...

We were talking the other evening at the dinner table about loving our enemies and doing good to those that hurt us. Owen spoke up and said he has a list of rules that he is going to give to the bad guys when they show up at our house. He wanted me to write them down for him: 1 - Be kind 2 - Don't lie 3 - Don't steal 4 - Don't fight 5 - Don't do bad things 6 - Really don't to bad things 7 - Done Pretty convincing, right? I guess some of the things we are teaching are sinking in.

On February 1st our little Madeline turns one years old! Maddie has been a sweet addition to our family of five. From the beginning she has displayed a laid-back personality, loving to be snuggled or just sit on our laps, and enjoying watching Owen and Hannah play around her. (I am so thankful that this has been her attitude, it helps immensely with our life at Gateway.) As this will most likely be our last baby, I have tried to cherish every wonderful and frustrating moment the first year of life may bring. It's hard to believe a year has gone by already! We love you, Madeline, and we are so glad that God gave you to us to raise up to know Him and to bring Him glory through the life you live! Happy Birthday!

Picture of the 3 kiddos after decorating the tree. At one point Maddie was so excited and bouncing up and down, she bounced her diaper right off (honestly) I want to post a pic but wasn't sure about putting a bare bum on the internet :) Just a random picture of Maddie i took one day - she has proved to be quite photogenic :) Celebrating Jesus' Birth... That's what we have been trying to ingrain into out children's ' heads this whole month of December. To teach them to anticipate the celebration of Christ's birth, not the opening of presents. We've been able to celebrate with both sides of the family, a little spaced out through the month. Back on December 11, we got together with all the Suvar's up at Sam and Kat's new home in Toledo. It was a great place, room enough for everyone to stay overnight and hang out from Friday to Sunday. Thanks Sam and Kat for opening your home to all the (wonderful) chaos! On Christmas Day we got together with t...

This Thanksgiving we were on duty at Gateway. Although we were very bummed to miss family gatherings, we are thankful that the time went smoothly. It can be kinda dicey with everyone home from school for 4 days straight....look out Christmas vacation! I tried my best to make a real Thanksgiving feast and ended up making the turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, noodles, gravy, and pumpkin pie all from scratch. The only thing from a box was the mashed potatoes...i know, i know, but by the time i got to the potatoes, i was DONE with cooking! We enjoyed a filling meal and watched football and played some ping-pong. The electricity went out around 7 PM but THANKFULLY we have a generator so we had partial power. The next day we set up the tree and all the resident got in the spirit and helped. Owen and Hannah had so much fun as well. Maddie, we stuck in a swing to keep her from pulling the tree over. We also spent some time drawing and coloring turkeys, writing down what we are than...

This past weekend Paul ran another marathon. He was not satisfied with his time last month at Columbus (he was 31 seconds shy of his goal). So he signed up for another one to try to beat his goal time of 3 hrs and 30 minutes. One glitch...we were on duty...for the whole weekend. This was only made possible by the help of Paul's parents who kept our kids for the weekend - thank you!!! Saturday morning Paul got up sometime in the 4 or 5 o'clock hour (i can't remember) and got himself ready and headed to Columbia City about 45 minutes from Leo. I got up at a much more reasonable hour and herded the residents through breakfast and then into the van to go watch Paul. We set ourselves up at the finish about an hour before Paul was set to run by. The residents got caught up in the excitement and cheered on all the finishers that ran by. And at about 3 hr 24 minutes we saw Paul down the road about 3/4 mile from the finish. Two of the residents ran with Paul to the finish...